Well, this is unexpected. The iPhone 4G saga just got a whole lot crazier - dare I say it, a whole lot more ridiculous. Have you ever reported anything like a phone or something similarly small stolen to the police? What was their reaction? Did you ever get the device back? Did they send an army of officers to get your device back? No? Odd. They raided Jason Chen's house, and took four computers and two servers. Update: And thus our true colours reveal. "The raid that San Mateo area cops conducted last week on the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen came at the behest of a special multi-agency task force that was commissioned to work with the computer industry to tackle high-tech crimes. And Apple Inc. sits on the task force's steering committee." Update II: According to TechCrunch, the investigation has been put on hold while the DA ponders Gizmodo's shield defence. Update III: Some legal insight from a constitutional law and first amendment expert and a law professor. The gist? The DA has said no one has been charged with anything here, making this just an investigation - however, this makes the search and seizing of material worse. "If the police are literally just gathering information, with no suspect targeted yet, then a subpoena against a journalist would have probably been smarter than a search warranted that resulted in the front door of Chen's home being bashed in."

Why do we lock our cars? Why don't we enact a law that anyone getting close to a stolen vehicle gets shot dead. Sounds appropriate and makes lives of law abiding citizens easier, right? I am sorry, but they went a bit over the top harassing that poor chap over a phone stolen or not. This is not what police normally does when phones get stolen.

Highly valued prototype, industrial secret? Well, isn't that Apple's failure to guard it? Why should a taxpayer be substituting for their shortcomings to do their housekeeping properly?

After all, was someone freely roaming with it around the city? Has it been FCC approved or did they actually cross the bounds taking it out of the lab? What if it started knocking other wireless (or other) devices out, interfering with pacemakers? Didn't actually Apple break the law and get what they had coming?

this isn't some dude's phone, this is a prototype. it didnt' just get a few pictures snapped, the complete details of what's inside and specs got leaked allowing competitors to match or beat it spec wise.

this will also cause a lot of consumers to hold off on not buying a 3GS iPhone and wait for the new device affecting their revenue.

I predict as a result of this, the 4G will come out sooner than Apple wants to with lower stock available since it's already 'out there'.